XENIA HANUSIAK

“Hanusiak is a fantastic presenter… from the start it’s obvious she’s serious business and knows what she’s doing” Classical: Next Berlin

" With a resume that spans continents and disciplines, Hanusiak brings a rare blend of creativity, intellect, and global perspective to everything she touches."

Described as the ‘High Priestess of Harmony,’ whose writing has ‘enjoyed exceptional public approbation,’ Xenia Hanusiak enjoys one of the most diverse lives on the world’s stages. She is an artistic director, curator, cultural diplomat, and scholar whose lifelong dedication to the arts as an opera singer and writer embraces the many styles and traditions of the lands where she lives, works, and travels. 

Xenia directs international performing arts, literature, and interdisciplinary festivals, forums, and initiatives. In 2022 she co-curated the Salzburg Global Seminar’s 75th Anniversary Arts Program, Currents of Change: Redefining Cultural Diplomacy for the Future We Need, which convened sixty diplomats, ambassadors, artists, curators, scholars, and cultural leaders from twenty-eight countries, resulting in the Salzburg Statement. Her festival Songlines for a New World debuted at National Sawdust’s Spring Revolution Festival in New York (2018) and now tours internationally. Previous projects include A Thousand Doors, A Thousand Windows (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Venice, Boston, Florence, Singapore, Beijing), MADE IN CHINA (Beijing Music Festival), Earth Songs (Korea, Sydney, Melbourne), and The Garden of Joy and Sorrow (Melbourne International Arts Festival).

As a culture commentator, essayist and critic she’s published by The Guardian, London Financial Times, Corriere della Sera, Arts Journal, The Log Journal (National Sawdust),Music and Literature, Chicago Tribune, International Arts Manager, Aspen Ideas, Musical America, New York Times, Classical Voice North America (USA), AEON and AEON Psyche, South China Post, Arts and International Affairs, Choir and Organ (UK), New Music Box as well as literary and scholarly journals. She writes on music, theater, film, contemporary installation and literature, ideas.

Her stage works include the play Ward B (R.E. Ross Trust Award), the children’s chorus Un_labelled (with Elena Kats-Chernin/Boosey & Hawkes/Young People’s Chorus of New York City), the libretto A Thousand Doors, A Thousand Windows (Melbourne International Arts Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, Venice Biennale), the music-theatre work Earth Songs (Homart Theatre Korea; Melbourne Recital Centre), and the dramatic vocal monologue The MsTaken Identity(Adelaide Festival of Arts/Australian String Quartet). Most recently, she collaborated with Norwegian composer Stein Eide on the song cycle The Singing Lesson (Universal Edition) for female choir.

She is a Salzburg Global Fellow ; a Global Cultural Fellow, Institute of International Relations, University of Edinburgh; a Eugene O’Neill National Theater Critics’ Institute Fellow (USA), an artist incubator at Culture Summit, Abu Dhabi; a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University (New York), a Churchill Fellow, a State Library of Victoria Creative Fellow, and a Writer-in-residence at Peking University.

A sought after speaker, Xenia’s addresses to diverse audiences offer many opportunities. Her recent presentations include the UNESCO International Conference (Nairobi), Classical:NEXT in Berlin  The Musical Art of Curation, ENCTATC, and Communicating the Arts (Sydney). Other engagements include: EU National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), Salzburg Global Seminar, UNESCO Media Information and Literacy Conference, International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy (United Nations), Boston University, Northeastern University (Boston), Museums Victoria, Non-FictionNow (Melbourne and Reykjavik), Peking University (China), Sang Myung and Kookmin Universities (Korea), the National University of Singapore (Singapore), the Shanghai Institute of Theatre (Shanghai), Monash University, Melbourne University, and Adelaide Universities (Australia), the International Forum for Words and Music at Arizona State University, and Performers  Present Symposium at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore) and La Salle Sia. 

Xenia holds a PhD in literature/Creative Writing, a masters in classical music performance, a Bachelor of Arts degree (theatre and literature), and a Bachelor or Music. She is an alumna of the Eugene O’Neill National Critics Institute (USA), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada), and Corsi di Perfezionamento Sulla Musica del Novecento (Italy). Her residencies include Hambidge (USA), Noepe Writers’ Residency (Martha’s Vineyard), Bundanon Trust (Australia), and King Island Artists Residency (Tasmania).. Her honours include the R.E. Ross Trust Award for playwriting and unique recognition across three categories of the Australia Council (Literature, Music, and Theatre). She has held fellowships from the Australia-China Council, Australia-Korea Foundation, Asialink, Ian Potter Foundation, and Copyright Australia (CAL).

As an operatic soprano, Xenia has given world premiere performances on four continents. Her appearances include the Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Ten Days on the Island festivals (Australia), Aarhus Festival (Denmark), Banff Festival of Arts (Canada), Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music Festival (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington), Singapore Arts Festival, Gruppo Aperto Musica Oggi (Florence), Beijing Musica Acoustica, Beijing Music Festival (China) MODAFE Festival (Seoul), The Concert Hall, Esplanade Theatre on The Bay, (Singapore) and the Ljubljana Spring Festival. She has given the country or world premieres of some of the most influential composers of our time including Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Harbison, Elena Kats-Chernin, Chinese electro-acoustic composer Zhang Xiaofu, and Korean composer Cecilia Heejong Kim.